National Stupidity Agency

Governments seem to have decided that the only thing this new-fangled (Ahem) internet thing is only good for committing crimes and spying on populations, even in countries once considered bastions of liberal (in the true sense) freedoms. The U.S. (Patriot Act, et al) and the U.K. (Endemic surveillance society, according to Privacy.org) have both taken a giant dump all over personal freedoms and privacy (Yes, I want to be groped by an overweight TSA agent), and are proving time after time that they just don’t get it.

National governments don’t understand distributed computing, encryption, or anonymity without proxies, yet all of these things exist out there in the wild of the internet, and are being used by very bright, very tech savvy people who eat, sleep, and breathe internet protocols. Remember Egypt? Libya? Within days or weeks, the western world was able to cobble together means of internet access that could be provided to the vast majority of people, at least for basic text send and receive. Encrypted and anonymous, mostly.

Yet in their home countries, those capabilities are viewed as criminal by a government that seems to have as much understanding of the modern communication landscape as an Elizabethan would have of the internal combustion engine. Less, probably. It boggles the mind. I can only hope that the cartels of old fart politicians collapses under their own incompetence and idiocy.

Inspired by this article.